House Democrats advance Biden’s almost $5tn in spending plans

House Democrats advance Biden’s almost $5tn in spending plans

WASHINGTON: US President Joe Biden’s plans to spend nearly $5 trillion to change the world’s largest economy advanced in the House of Representatives on Tuesday, after Democratic leaders reached an agreement with centrist lawmakers to end a dispute that threatened the bills. Biden and his Democratic allies controlling the chamber are pushing for passage of both a $1.2 trillion overhaul to the country’s infrastructure and a bill costing $3.5 trillion over 10 years that would pay for improvements to education, health care and climate change resiliency.

While the infrastructure bill has already won passage in the Senate with some votes from Republicans, Democrats have found no opposition support for the second, larger bill, and were planning to approve it with their votes alone — a tough task given their narrow majorities in both chambers of Congress. The dispute erupted when centrist Democrats in the House said the infrastructure bill must be voted on first, but on Tuesday, those lawmakers backed a compromise resolution that would see the infrastructure measure put to a vote in about a month.

“I am committing to pass the bipartisan infrastructure bill by September 27. I do so with a commitment to rally House Democratic support for its